


i'd rather be the wickedest witch

by TheTartWitch



Series: Twilight Remixes [3]
Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Alice is an enabler, Alternate Universe - Magic, Aromantic Bella, Bella is not clueless, Bella is not helpless, Bella is unafraid to deal with her problems like a grownup, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, No romo, Witch Bella, Witch Renee, also she is fascinated, by which I mean, does it count if they're already dead?, is there a plot for this?, namely burning people alive, some mentions of burning people alive and then being happy about it, what even is this AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 07:45:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11573556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTartWitch/pseuds/TheTartWitch
Summary: The school is small and quiet. There are no fights on the first day, though no one is shy with staring at her. She hoists her bag higher on her shoulder and trips for good measure. Today is the day she gets them all to underestimate her, to look her over and forget her.





	i'd rather be the wickedest witch

**Author's Note:**

> Title adapted from a quote by Jude Law, who I loved as Watson in the RDJ Holmes movies.  
> "I've always thought Prince Charming in 'Cinderella' was the most boring role; I'd rather be the Wicked Witch."

It’s not hard hiding what you are from people. It runs in Renee’s bloodline so over time they’ve developed ways of hiding the way there’s always something too pale about you, how animals don’t mind sitting abnormally close as though you’re not there, how you can always tell when a good storm’s coming. For those more observant than the rest, those with a spark of power that will never really amount to anything but gives a slight edge, there’s always lying or slipping them something in their coffees.

Charlie knows. It’s their one rule: if the child has that  _ something _ , you tell your partner, if they don’t already know. Bella knows many of her kind forego the old laws, saying they have little to no relation to present day, but there has to be something to them. Afterall, they’re still a secret, aren’t they?

But Forks. It’s close to something of power, protective of its own. Bella can feel it worming into her skin, twining with her own power, greeting her in old ways.  _ Welcome _ , something whispers, and ruffles Bella’s hair. Charlie watches her eyebrows raise, knowing, as Renee always said, that the aura, the energy, of Forks was bewildering and raised the hair on her arms. 

Bella likes it.

\--

The school is small and quiet. There are no fights on the first day, though no one is shy with staring at her. She hoists her bag higher on her shoulder and trips for good measure. Today is the day she gets them all to underestimate her, to look her over and forget her. 

The office isn’t empty. The elderly secretary smiles absently and fails to notice when the poster on the wall scoots to the left three inches, though she frowns at it when she does notice. Bella smiles back and accepts her schedule.

\--

The Cullens and the Hales are strange at lunch, vibrating through her senses, and Edward is strange at Bio.

She watches him flinch when she scratches her hand absently. 

Interesting.

\--

“Storm tonight,” she warns Charlie, and he glances out their kitchen window into the perfect sky mournfully before wandering off to call his friends. He knows she wouldn’t say anything to disrupt his plans unless she worried for his safety.

\--

Tyler’s van doesn’t hit her. Bella, in a moment of genius, “reaches in” and tilts his wheels just a smidge to the left and he hits the Cullens’ fancy Volvo. She doesn’t worry for their safety, knowing what they are, and brushes off the concerns of her friends with a shy smile. 

There’s no need to spill valuable blood on the pavement of a high school, is there? After all, she’ll be attending for the next four years.

Edward’s eyes are a sharp black when they stare at her before glaring at Tyler’s van.

\--

“Storm tonight,” she says to Alice, grinning, and walks away from them before they can question her. That night, as it rains in town but the thunder echoes from elsewhere, she smiles into the sky quietly. 

There’s no need for any of that sort of attention, after all.

\--

“Bella,” says Renee, “have you had access to everything you needed? I  _ know _ you said you’d performed most of the rituals before you left, but what about the ones relying on the date?”

Bella smiles. Phil’s wide eyes in the background clue her in to the fact that her mother’s “come out”, so to speak, as some sort of witch. Probably by setting something on fire.

“Yes, mom. Charlie’s been very helpful.”

“Because I know he tries his best, but an outsider isn’t  _ really _ the best choice to ask for directions on this, if you know what I mean.”

“Yes, mom. I’m still ordering them from that site you found, don’t worry.”

“Oh! In  _ that _ case, did you see the sale on -?”

\--

Some nights she scries. There’s enough natural water for it, in this ever-raining town, and there wasn’t quite so much in Phoenix, so she takes the time to master this spell. 

( _ before he can escape her reach, before the woman and the coward fly to his side, before he does something unforgivable to someone she loves somewhere. _ )

( _ Well. _ )

( _ Let’s just say Forks is as helpful and eager to please as always, and even in the rain and drizzle and mist, vampire burns like something blessed by a fire itself. _ )

\--

“They just caught fire! Right in front of us!” Alice exclaims, hands waving. They’re sitting together at lunch, Bella settled in among some of the most dangerous creatures on Earth.

“Hm.” She says softly. “Did they? Imagine that.”

( _ in the back of her head, fire licks through her limbs and Edward screams. _ )

( _ in this life, Alice steals her french fry and throws it at Emmett’s head in retaliation for something he hasn’t done yet. _ )

Alice’s eyes blank as she sees something and she reaches across to pat Bella’s hand happily. “It was amazing, darling. A true work of art. Say, doing anything on the full moon?”

As a matter of fact, she is.

\--

“You smell” he pauses, “different from the rest of them. Bad. Empty. My instincts tell me not to touch you. So I don’t mind your company all that much.” 

She smirks. “Easier to resist eating when your food is rotting, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Jasper agrees lightly. “It is indeed.”

He holds the door for her when they leave the building.

\--

Renee comes for a visit.

“We were close by, hon, and Phil didn’t mind overly much waiting for my return.”

_ Whipped _ , Bella thinks, and stifles her smile. “This is Alice,” she says, offering the lithe blonde as a tribute.

“Ah,” says Renee, smile ever pleasant. She can sense the chill of the air around the vampires, but she would never hold it against them. They’re polite enough to pretend the smell of witches isn’t repugnant to anything with a nose worth anything.

They sit and watch quietly as she and her mother light a candle, shed blood (Jasper quivers, but  _ away _ , not  _ towards _ , and he’s not the only one), and speak the words of power. It would sound like absolutely nothing, even to the sharp ears of the immortals, and as the rush of fresh, eternal magic spreads through Bella and Renee’s limbs and their eyes glow with something approaching a pale, pale white, Bella feels young again for the first time in a year.

Renee leaves the next morning, ready to continue the baseball tour, and Bella smiles from a tangle of cold, dead limbs.

**Author's Note:**

> I guess this one too is open to prompts, though I'm not as eager to get into this as I am my other Twilight fic, so...:)   
> Tell me what you think!


End file.
